www.heraldsun.news.com.au By KAREN COLLIER and FLEUR ANDERSON 04mar03

DRIVERS hurting from soaring petrol prices have united to plead for fuel tax cuts.

Victoria's peak motoring group, the RACV, claims rocketing fuel costs could pump up to $750 million a year extra into Federal Government coffers.

Peak unleaded petrol prices have crashed through the $1 mark nationwide as higher crude oil costs triggered by war jitters and a strike in Venezuela flow through at the bowser.

RACV government relations spokesman David Cumming said constantly high fuel prices could grab up to $250 million extra a year in GST, and up to $500 million more from a resource rent tax levied on oil producers.

But Treasurer Peter Costello last night denied the Government would cash in on drivers' pain.

Mr Costello said petrol tax revenue remained in line with forecasts and that the Government may actually get less money from motorists' pockets.

The RACV said that in Victoria for every litre of petrol costing $1, the Government reaped 46.79c. This included excise at a fixed 37.7c and GST at 9.09c.

The motoring group plans to approach Prime Minister John Howard to cut excise by 10c a litre if petrol costs do not ease within a fortnight.

Business banking officer Paula Bouboukis, of Caroline Springs, joined the call for fuel tax relief to be considered.

Ms Bouboukis started catching a train to work a fortnight ago instead of driving because of higher petrol prices.

"Every extra dollar to fill up the car counts when you are a single parent and paying off a mortgage," she said.

But Mr Costello insisted the Government was not in line for a tax windfall.

"The Government has frozen excise -- this does not go up with CPI or inflation," he told the Herald Sun last night.

"The GST goes to the states. The Commonwealth does not get extra GST."

Mr Costello rejected Opposition figures predicting the Government would reap at least $600 million more from the GST and petroleum resource rent tax this financial year.

Mr Cumming said drivers were the victims of war jitters and warned continued high prices could not be tolerated.

"Country towns are already beginning to hurt from people having less left over in the budget each week," he said. "We are paying an unfair war premium for a conflict that may or may not happen.

"The Government cannot do anything about the rising crude oil price, but it can certainly do something about tax."

www.channelnewsasia.com First created : 03 March 2003 1239 hrs (SST) 0439 hrs (GMT) Last modified : 03 March 2003 1835 hrs (SST) 1035 hrs (GMT)

Neptune Orient Lines, the world's seventh largest container shipping group, said its unit, American Eagles Tankers had won a US$220 million (S$382m) long-term contract to transport fuel from Venezuela to Asia.

In a statement, NOL Chairman, Cheng Wai Keung said AET won the tender to transport fuel for BITOR, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela.Advertisement The fuel will be delivered to Singapore power company Power Seraya which is switching to cleaner and cheaper Venezuelan oil to fuel its power station.

The contract is for seven years with an option for a three-year extension, and starts in the second half of 2004.

AET will expand its fleet of very large crude carriers (VLCCs) by three to five to cope with the additional capacity demands.

NOL has negotiated with Far Eastern shipyards last year to build the three additional VLCCs.

The vessels will be delivered from the end of next year to the beginning of 2005.

Industry analysts said the contract could put NOL in a stronger bargaining position to sell its profitable tanker unit and reduce debt.

Loss-making NOL, which is cutting costs in a bid to revive its core container shipping business, has said it is considering selling its only profitable division.

Analysts say the sale of American Eagle Tankers could fetch as much as US$1 billion, which would help bring down the shipping group's gearing to below three times from the current five times.

Last week, the Singapore shipping group said its 2002 net loss widened to S$574 million.

PowerSeraya told Channel NewsAsia that the Venezuelan oil is cheaper than high sulphur fuel oil, even after taking into account the cost of transporting it half way round the world.

The energy firm estimates that it'll be buying up to 1.8 million tons per year of the Venezuelan oil.

sg.biz.yahoo.com Monday March 3, 9:10 AM

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--American Eagle Tankers, the U.S.-based oil transporting unit of Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. (P.NEP), has received a US$220-million contract to transport fuel from Venezuela to Asia, the shipping line said Sunday.

American Eagle Tankers will transport orimulsion, a bitumen-based fuel, for a unit of Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA, for delivery to Singapore power company Power Seraya, NOL said in a statement.

The contract is for seven years with an option for a three-year extension, and starts in the second half of 2004, it said.

-By Sai Man, Dow Jones Newswires, 65 6415 4155; sai.man@dowjones.com

-Edited by Sumathi Vaidyanathan

www.deepikaglobal.com Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, Mar 1 (UNI) Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik today said the country had enough crude stocks for two months, allaying any fear of shortage of petroleum products in the event of a war between the United States and Iraq. Talking to newspersons after inaugurating a Crude Oil Jetty of the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL)-Cauvery Basin Reserve (CBR) here, he said the Petroleum Ministry, to meet any exigency situations, had chalked out a contingency plan for importing crude oil from countries that do not come under the war zone. Mr Naik, however, declined to divulge the name of the countries from which crude would be imported. ''You can rest be assured that the Petroleum Ministry has made enough arrangements for importing crude from other countries in the event of a break out of a war, which India is not favouring,'' he said and added that the strategic stock piling by India when a war against Pakistan appeared imminent last year, had worked out to its advantage now. Justifying the hike in the prices of petroleum products announced in the Union Budget yesterday, he said the crude prices in the highly volatile International market shot up to 37 US dollars per barrel yesterday (an all time high in 12 years) from about 19 to 20 dollars per barrel last year in the wake of the War threat looming large. The strike in Venezuela, one of the major oil exporting countries, had contributed to this. Under these circumstances the government had no other alternative but to increase the prices of petrol and diesel or else it had to stop import of crude oil, which he said would hamper economic activity in the country. The government had worked out some sort of cushion arrangement under which the entire burden was not passed on to the consumers.

www.hinduonnet.com By N. Ravi Kumar

Nagapattinam March 1. A day after the Finance Minister virtually turned down his plea for an excise duty cut on petrol and diesel, by not making any announcement to the effect in the budget, the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ram Naik, hinted at hard days ahead for the

consumers if the volatility in international crude price continues. "There is no choice if the price (of crude) goes up," he told presspersons after inaugurating the Rs. 96-crore oil jetty of the Chennai

Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) at its Cauvery basin refinery here today.

Stating that several factors, including the war-like situation in the Persian Gulf and the ongoing labour strife in Venezuela, were behind the present volatility, Mr. Naik said, "if the duty (on the automobile fuels) is reduced," the resultant burden on the consumers would be comparatively less. With the country 70 per cent import dependent for its crude requirement — the oil import bill last year came to Rs. 78,000 crores — it had little option. "There are only two options, either to restrict the imports and stop economic activity, or reduce the supply," both of which were not easy, Mr. Naik said.

Noting that the Rs.1.50 per litre increase in petrol and diesel prices, after the latest fortnightly revision announced on February 28 evening, would have been double if the oil companies had compensated for the increase in the crude prices, the Minister said, "some sort of cushion arrangement (to absorb such shocks) were being tried out." The decision of the oil companies was their own and taken in the interest of the customers, he said, even while adding, "I will have a dialogue with the Finance Minister" seeking reduction in the excise duty.

Allaying apprehensions that the supply of petroleum products would be affected in the event of a war in Middle East, Mr. Naik said the stock-piling experiment conducted by the Ministry, when a war with Pakistan looked imminent last year, came in handy now. The present stock was enough to meet the country's requirement for two months and "we have made contingency plans to purchase crude from countries that do not come under the war zone."

However, he refused to divulge further details about the countries and the quantum of orders placed for obvious reasons. Similarly, he refused to comment on why the Centre continued to impose cess on petrol and diesel when the customers were already feeling the pinch of the volatility in the global crude prices.

Underscoring the significance of increasing the country's indigenous crude production, the Minister said the fourth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy were to be announced in the first week of April and it would include blocks in the Cauvery basin. The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, he added, would announce the details about the blocks. The present regime at the Centre, he added, awarded as many as 70 blocks under three rounds of NELP as against the 22 blocks awarded in the previous 10 years.